Abstract

'We want to organise a protest outside the embassy to make people aware of what's going on in Darfur,' stated a request to the Institute for Security Studies from a local university society keen on raising levels of awareness and activism on relevant issues affecting the African continent. Certainly this was an encouraging sign from what has often unfairly been characterised as a politically apathetic South African 'born free generation'. But in response to the question on how they view the Darfur conflict and what the aims of a protest campaign would be, the students admitted that they were aware of their lack of understanding of the politics but added that something needed to be done in the face of ongoing genocide in Darfur.